History of China

HISTORY OF CHINA

The first vestiges of human life that are found in China, dating from about 700,000 years 

ago. Bones of these so-called Lantian-man were found in the middle and upper reaches of 

the Yellow River. Peking man much younger, fossils of this human type dating from about 

500,000 years ago. In the Neolithic Age, about 6000 years ago, began to draw many 

nomadic tribes permanently in certain places, to cultivate the land and raise cattle. 

Examples from this period are the Yangshao- and Longshan culture. The Shang Dynasty is 

the first civilization which actually prove found in the North China plains around the Yellow 

River, in the current provinces of Shandong, Henan and Hebei and parts of Shaanxi and 

Shanxi. They made shapes tools and objects made of bronze, cast in clay. Around the 

habitat of the Shang arose other states who took many of the Shang cultures but continued 

political independence.


Zhou Dynasty and Qin Dynasty : 


By one of these states, the Zhou, the Shang were about 1050 BC. reports. The Zhou (1050-

256 BC.) Ruled over a very large area by means of a feudal system in which noble families 

of the rulers of the various states Zhou held sway. The empire was so large that a second 

the capital was built in Luoyang. But the size of the empire was also its weakness. The 

nobles in the remote areas did what they felt like it, because of could be no strong central 

government. This made it for malicious powers not difficult to attack the Zhou and weaken 

rapidly. In 771 BC. Zhou was also heading east driven by "barbarians" and disgruntled 

citizens.



The Eastern Zhou Dynasty is divided into two periods in history, the "Spring, and Autumn 

Period" and the "Period of the Warring States", which are mutually conducted frequent war. 

Qin, who lived around the western capital, ultimately remained the strongest power on and 

defeated in 256 BC. the City, and the other states in 221 BC. The Qin Dynasty proved to be 

very strong and powerful and would have a major impact on the subsequent history of 

China. The founder of the dynasty, Qin, was called the "First Emperor" and was for nearly 

all Chinese people an appealing figure. However, he ruled very brilliantly and China was 

divided into counties and military regions that were controlled or centrally. Rules were even 

prepared for the written language and for weights and measures.


Intellectual contradiction was not tolerated and that was one of the reasons that quickly 

came resisted Qin in 214 BC. Chinese area had already expanded into what is now 

Vietnam. In 210 BC. Qin died, and his three successors were unable to see the still latent 

resistance to breaking.


Han Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, and Song Dynasty :


After the Qin Dynasty developed the Han dynasty, which intercepts the opposition benefited 

the population and one of the greatest dynasties in the history of China. The state was 

ruled on the basis of Confucianism -an individual and every ruler should seek the happiness

of others and have been a good education and rituals of great interest and broke a period 

of the great flowering of culture and the science. Important in this period was the opening of 

the Silk Road to the west and the advent of Buddhism. In addition, several regions much 

more interconnected so there gradually emerged a large Chinese empire with its own 

identity.



The demise of the Han Dynasty was partly due to the economic rise of the region around 

the southern Sichuan lowlands and the Yangtse Valley. They felt at one point strongly 

enough to organize uprisings that ultimately led to China fell apart in three states parts: the 


Wei, Shu, and Wu. These three states argued for centuries struggle and war for hegemony, 

with the result that the Chinese empire even greater broke fragmented and total chaos. 

From this confusing period finally came yet again two powerful dynasties forward, the Tang 

and Song Dynasty.



During the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD.) Grew and prospered the Chinese empire as never 

before. Thus, the capital Chang'a (now Xi'an) had more than 2 million inhabitants and was 

thus at that time probably the largest city in the world. The Chinese empire was also well 

organized at that time. Laws applied to the whole country and Confucian schools were 

established everywhere. Furthermore, frequent trading was driven by foreign and Buddhism

reached its peak. In the same Tang period, Buddhism enjoyed a downturn because they are

outside the influence of saw too powerful.



During the Tang Dynasty were achieved further major political reforms and initially poorer 

south was becoming richer. The Tang period was one of urbanization and a thriving foreign 

trade. Furthermore, were made many discoveries and inventions, but it was also a time of a 

certain decadence and China as a military power was not much. Buddhism was still 

suffering from the oppression during the Tang period and thinking in China was 800 years 

determined by the neo-Confucianism.


Finally came to an end this also in the cultural field flowering period by economic problems.

In particular, the richer and more powerful gentry eventually led to the disintegration of the 

Tang Dynasty, a process that took place over a period of five centuries. 


The Song Dynasty (960-1279) brought back unity in the war-torn kingdom. But they soon 

had to suffer attacks from the 'barbaric' Khitans who conquered the capital Kaifeng in 946 

from the north and the song expelled to the south. This occupation of northern China would 

last 300 years.


Mongol domination :


In the thirteenth century, the Mongols succeeded in conquering the whole of China. Under 

the leadership of the famous Genghis Khan has captured in 1215 Beijing. The former 

Mongol empire was divided after the death of Genghis Khan among his three sons and a

grandson. Son Ogodai China again invaded and defeated the Khitan rulers in the north. 

The song in the south held five decades prior but was defeated in 1279 by the grandson of 

Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan. He ruled from then throughout China and Yuan chose the 

name for his dynasty.


Live under the Mongols was not easy for the Chinese. They had to in terms of clothing, 

traditions, language, and food fully adapt to the Mongolian customs. Confucian ideas and if 

they maintain or administrative policy.


The Mongol period was marked also by the frequent contacts with foreign countries, 

including the Islamic Persia and Europe, of which Marco Polo (1271) would be the best 

known representative. Even Roman Catholicism was introduced as a new religion and was

even sent envoys to the Pope. In the Ming period, the Catholic Church lost all the gains.

Even before that time, the Mongols lost their grip on the vast empire. Further, the empire 

was plagued by major floods, famine and rebellions.


Ming Dynasty :


The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) would take over the Mongols, initially led by the founder of 

the dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, who later became emperor. He drove out the Mongols and 

established its capital in Nanjing. After the death of Zhu broke a civil war and eventually his 

son drive the intended successor to Zhu. He would himself Emperor Yongle to call and 

become one of the most famous Ming emperors. As the first act of importance, he moved 

the capital to his power center Beijing.



Yongle took a number of major projects underway such as the reconstruction of the Great 

Wall and large population movements to colonize the land. Furthermore, the Chinese were 

able to increase their influence on the major trade routes, the latter led by a eunuch admiral. 

This lucrative expedition was immediately put stop when the threat of the Mongols and 

the distrust grew towards the eunuch-captains. Chinese citizens were forbidden to travel 

more abroad, and thus China became increasingly isolated.


Period Chiang Kai-shek :


Sun Yatsen was succeeded after his death in 1925 by the leader of the Nationalist Party or 

Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek. He wanted to restore a whole of China and therefore, it was 

necessary to break the power of the warlords and chasing them away from Beijing.


To do this, the help was enlisted instructors from the net communist Soviet Union became. 

Under the influence of the Soviets established the Communist Party of China in 1921, 

which in 1923 joined the nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek. However, this was not great and 

Chiang Kai-shek knew that he alone could successfully book with the help of other countries 

and the wealthy Chinese industrialists who were strongly against communism and Marxism.

In 1927, Chiang sent his armies to the north of China and called for a new nationalist 

the government in Nanjing. The first thing he did was subsequently banning the Communist 

Party and the removal of leftist figures from his party, which is often accompanied by 

excessive violence. Then the communists were persecuted throughout China and the 

nationalists tried to destroy the communist army in central China. Under the leadership of 

Mao Zedong fled the Communists in 1935 to the west, a "Long March" of more than 23,000 

kilometers. Tens of thousands of people died on the way from exhaustion, only 10,000 

reached their goal.


The Japanese expansionism were two parties, however, a common enemy, and it was 

necessary to close a file. Namely, Japan threatened entirely to annex China. The fight 

against the Japanese lasted until the end of World War II. The communists waged a 

guerrilla war from the West and the nationalists, along with allies from the southern province

of Sichuan.


It will be clear that after defeating the common enemy, the old divisions between 

nationalists and communists surfaced again.


Farmer's son Mao Zedong had in the meantime farmers gotten behind him and almost 

the inevitable civil war that lasted from 1946 to 1949 was also won by Mao. In October 1949 

Mao stood with his army at the gates of the Forbidden City in Beijing and Chiang Kai-shek 

fled to the island of Taiwan and established a government in private. On October 1, 1949 

the People's Republic of China was proclaimed.


The People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong :


The first years under Mao stood with regard to the internal situation in the sign of rebuilding 

the economy and securing the Communist political power. Against potential adversaries 

was initially acted fairly cautiously, because Mao support could still use. Furthermore, the

state apparatus and the party organization was anchored across the country in society.


As regards agriculture, we took immediate depth to the business and began the 

redistribution of land, at the expense of the former landowners. Violence was not shy and it 

is estimated that more than 2 million lives have been involved. In 1956 also were 

nationalized all industries. In the social field, they took drastic measures: they tried by all 

means to break the traditional family ties based social structure.


In 1953, the People's Republic got an official state apparatus and a constitution in which the 

leading role of the Communist Party was confirmed. Mao held from 1949 to 1959 the 

function of both party president as head of state (since 1969 head of state post remained 

vacant and was completely abolished in the Constitution of 1975). Prime Minister was there 

from 1949 until his death in 1976, Zhou Enlai.


The foreign policy was marked in 1949 by the preparation for national independence, see 

for example the occupation of Tibet in 1950.


Initially, Mao was still supported by the West, but this changed after China's support on 

North Korea. In the war with South Korea, the West came to diametrically oppose Mao's 

China and became isolated country. This changed only after the armistice in Korea and the 

Geneva Conference on Indochina in 1954. China managed to break the isolation by being 

cast as one of the leaders of the Third World.


Most people live more in the east. It has a large population, as much as a quarter of the 

entire population of the world lives in China. With great concern, it has been managed now.


Religion : (  Taoism/ Daoism )


There are many different religions in China. The traditional religions of China, Taoism 

(actually more of a folk religion) and Buddhism. Buddhism was imported from India, so 

actually, only Taoism is the only religion that comes really from China.


The number of Muslims is estimated at 20 million.



In 1988, there were approximately 7 million Christians in the country, of whom about 60% 

were members of the National Catholic Church.



The Chinese wall :


China's most famous building is definitely the Great Wall. You can already see from the 

moon the wall. That is the very special course. One does not know the exact length of the 

wall but estimates reach 2,500 km long and the height of 16 meters. Not all pieces of the 

wall was connected.


The wall was built to protect the Chinese states against Normandy rider nations (especially 

the Mongols) from the north. Continuous Norm Aden attacked the northern Chinese border. 

With each new ruler came back endless debates about how to keep the standard Aden 

from their regions.


The Chinese had four choices:

1. organizing campaigns to drive them away from the neighborhood.

2. The making of defense places.

3. Make diplomatic and economic ties

4. build a wall to keep them out.


All of the above have been performed in different dynasties. Similarly, the build of a large 

wall. Hundreds of thousands of young men were forced to work with. Some of them 

deceased by the heavy work.


One hundred years later, the Huns were still not beaten. Now the wall is again visited by 

thousands of tourists every year.


Cultures and Traditions :

Chinese New Year:

Chinese New Year is celebrated on the first day of the lunar month of the Chinese calendar. Therefore, the date always different, but always between 21 January and 20th of February. For more than a billion people around the world, New Year is the most important holiday of the year. Similarly for China. Beforehand, everyone makes his home clean and repays term debt. Knives, scissors, and needles go under lock and key. So they can not accidentally destroy the happiness of the new year. The rooms are flowers and congratulations written on red paper strips. On the evening of the evil spirits to be scared because they are afraid of the lucky color red for fire and noise, people stabbing a lot reddened bangers off. Street dancing gay men in costumes of dragons and lions. Children have new clothes and bow to their parents giving their lucky money in red envelopes. They may steal as much as they want and they get on New Year never punishment.
Chinese New Year is always a very festive with parades, lots of fireworks and a lot of happy people.

Acupuncture :

In China, they do a lot of acupuncture. Acupuncture is now being done in the Netherlands. Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese treatment. Chinese doctors say that running energy flow in your body, a kind of rivers, which are called meridians. For example, if you're sick that you Yin Yang not well balanced. If you Yin Yang is not well that blocked energy channels in balance. With acupuncture needles stop them at certain places in your body and causes that energy jobs continue to flow again. If the needles are rotated into your skin does matter very much, but once they are in there you do not feel anything anymore. You also have electric acupuncture, are working with electrical currents instead of needles.

Herbs and Tea

Herbs can also help people with problems. An increasing number of Chinese herbs put into things. Ginseng is an example for such a herb: You come into tea and energy drinks. At the root of the ginseng plant are herbs that you will reduce fatigue and that mark even with energy drinks. Tea actually provides the same things. They reduce fatigue, calm and work well for your brains.

The Dragon

According to the Chinese stories a dragon is very old. It takes a thousand years before he's length. A dragon symbolizes wisdom and power. Therefore, a Chinese emperor used to be called the Dragon. The Emperor sat on a dragon throne, slept in a dragon bed and enter into a dragon boat. Every 11 years are the year of the dragon. Similarly in 2000. Many Chinese parents hope they have a child in the year of the dragon. Always with the Chinese New Year to do something with a dragon. They hold a procession where many dragons for coming.

Lotus Feet

In China were lotus feet (also called clubfeet) a great beauty ideal for women. During the Sung Dynasty (960-976 BC) there arose a beauty ideal of little feet. They tied at a young age your feet tight with dust so that your feet would be very short. Many Chinese women could barely walk because of this ideal of beauty and she had to wear appropriate footwear: the lotus shoes. This meant a life of pain and restriction of movement and sometimes even led to a flood of mutilation and even sometimes suicide! It was therefore banned foot binding in 1911 by the Chinese government.

Traditional braid

When the Chinese had never dreamed that the change of hairstyles could bring them great evil. In 1644, the Qing Dynasty took power in the mythical realm. The rulers were Manchu-Chinese. The men's Mandschu wore a different hairstyle than the previous dynasty, namely the Han Chinese. The front portion head was shaved and the rest of the hair was braided into a long braid.

In 1911 broke the bourgeois-democratic revolution from Xinhai, which led to the fall of the Qing Dynasty. All men, both Manchu as well as Han Chinese, the pigtail were cut off. Qing ruler himself had to undergo this painful experience and the hair cut. Cutting the hair resembles the rise and fall of the Qing Dynasty.

Eat

In China, people live very differently than we do here in the Netherlands. We eat vegetables with potatoes and meat. They eat rice, noodles and egg rolls filled with beans, onions, cabbage and mushrooms. Occasionally they eat eggs, fish or meat. Kantonnezen eats dog. After they have fattened a puppy 9 months with white rice meat should taste very good. They find the tastiest dark pups, but a white dog can bring through. Kantonnezen also eats cats and rats. They always eat with chopsticks. Chinese people learn that from an early age on.

Relationships in the family

To have a good family relationship with each other, without hassles.
Everyone knew his or her place in the family and you knew who you had to obey and had to show respect. In this way would not be conflicts between family members. Respect for old age was an important value. Usually lived grandparents with his granddaughter in the house. The man was an important person in the house. Women in society were actually irrelevant. And had to obey her husband. When her husband died, she should listen to her eldest son.
The position of a woman was not allowed home and education outside the house. Girls were married off and intruder in-laws. Only by having sons and old could be a woman in the family a little mean. Namely, age stood for wisdom, you had a lot of life experiences.

These rules were within a family:
- Between father and son -> son is obliged to do the correct thing and show love + respect, the father must be the best possible father.
- Between man and woman -> The wife must be obedient and docile + show respect, as the man was dead; woman obeys the eldest son.
- Between brothers -> younger brother must have respect for the older brother.

Education

In the country, the children from their sixth to eleventh at their elementary school. Few high schools. Children reach high school, 1 in 3 is that the children should not swear in the school rules or fighting. They have to learn diligently, love their country, respect their teachers, be polite to others, be humble and honest and keep gym. In China, everything is very strict. In the morning, the children sing first. They sing about how good their country and how good their teachers. If they have sung them go two by two into the school. Then you walk into the classroom and bend to the teacher and sits down. You can not say anything until the teacher says you should say something. But teachers should also be strict because they represent a class of up to 50 children! There is little money for schools. It is filthy and have no toilet. They have only a few books and you sit on small benches simple. Still, people need money to pay for the schools. Many children in China will not be able to go to school, and many people can not read or write in China.

The official language of China is Standard Mandarin, the dialect base of North China. This language is understood by the majority of the residents of the Chinese People's Republic (70%). Each province has its own dialect.

Since 1958, through schools and the radio standard, Mandarin promoted as a spoken language for all of the China. It is also still continued to a simplification of the Chinese characters. The simplified Romanization or phonetic transcription of Chinese characters called Hanyu-Pinyin spelling was officially accepted by January 1, 1979.
seven dialect groups: Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese (Yue), Min, Hakka (Kejia), Wu, Gan and Xiang

It is not easy to show separately. But the greatest difficulty still is in teaching the thousands of characters (characters) for writing. You have needs at least 2000 in order to understand a newspaper and certainly 4000 to read a scientific book. Because the Chinese language is difficult to read, the children learn at school also mostly English. This means the government to fight illiteracy.

CHINESE INVENTIONS

The Chinese have much invented. Such as fireworks, the wheelbarrow, the clock, the paper, gunpowder, the compass and tofu (food).

firework
In China are many fireworks factories. It is sold all over the world. Chinese fireworks not only pops, it is also to look very beautiful. The colors and shape of the fireworks are very important: a firecracker they are really not happy in China.

Barrow
The wheelbarrow they call China also called wooden box. For this simple cart can with a wheel as much lift as an ox. Sometimes it was even a sail strained. Then the wind was pushing easier. Between 1800 and 2200 years ago, the Chinese invented the wheelbarrow out.

The clock
The clock was invented by Su Song a Chinese official. He built about 900 years ago, a large clock. The data from this first movement could be a precise calendar.

The paper
The Chinese people had success it also to make paper. They used silk waste and there was pulp. Later, hemp, bark and used bamboo. there were large numbers of magazines, newspapers and books are created by the invention of paper. And thus learned more and more people read. About 900 years ago, was made for the first paper money in the 11th century.

Gunpowder
The Chinese were looking for something completely different: a substance that could make life longer. It did not work. Say a little accidentally found them or any other substance from, one that could explode: gunpowder. So no matter which could prolong life, but that could kill correctly.